The Australian/Vogel Literary Award: Deadline Extended.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of The Australian/Vogel Literary Award and some exciting changes are afoot!

The Australian/Vogel Literary Award is one of Australia’s richest and the most prestigious awards for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of thirty-five. Offering publication by Allen & Unwin and prize money totalling $20,000, the Vogel Award has launched the careers of some of its most successful writers, including Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Gillian Mears, Brian Castro, Mandy Sayer and Andrew McGahan.

Vogel-winning authors have gone on to win or be shortlisted for other major awards, such as the Miles Franklin Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Booker Prize.

This year, after the judges make their final decision, the winner will be contacted by Allen & Unwin and editing will begin on the winning manuscript. However, the winner’s name will not be made public until May 2011, simultaneous with publication of the winning book. No longer will the reading public have to wait to read the winning book! There will still be a shortlist and it will be announced in The Australian a few weeks prior to the announcement of the winner and publication of their book.

As a result of these changes, we have extended the deadline for entries to close of business 30 June 2010.

Entry forms for The Australian/Vogel Literary Award 2010 are now available at www.allenandunwin.com

About the Contributor

John Purcell (aka Natasha Walker) is the author of The Secret Lives of Emma trilogy published by Random House Australia. The Secret Lives of Emma: Beginnings reached the top ten on the Australian fiction charts and Natasha/John was the tenth highest selling Australian novelist and third highest selling Australian debut author in 2012. The trilogy has since sold over 50,000 copies in print and ebook and has been translated into French and Polish.
John has worked in the book industry for the last twenty years. While still in his twenties he opened John’s Bookshop, a second-hand bookshop in Mosman in which he sat for ten years reading, ranting and writing. Now he is the Head of Product and Chief Buyer at booktopia.com.au.